Virginia Air & Space Center hosts an exhibit that will puzzle you

If you're worried about the kids developing a fuzzy brain during the summer months, head to the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton where the traveling exhibit "Mindbender Mansion" is sure to test the wits.

On display through Sept. 3, the exhibit features a variety of riddles, geometric puzzles, pattern games and mazes that stretch the logic skills. A bit too advanced for the preschool set, the exhibit focuses on school-aged children, mingling word problems with more interactive activities like fitting puzzle pieces on a conveyor belt and manipulating a pattern challenge with rolling chairs.

A spelling trivia game was a favorite of 9-year-old Maddax Winston-Evans and his 7-year-old brother Cooper on a recent weekday afternoon. Their grandmother, Karen Evans, of Poquoson, brought the boys as a special outing.

"What is another name for a sasquatch?" an automated game announcer asked.

The exhibit is designed to reward puzzle masters who correctly complete a series of challenges. Complete puzzles find clues and unlock maps, and earn a spot on the Mindbender's Wall of Fame.

Among the 45 activities, many are designed for group participation, such as the "Amazing Maze," which asks players to work together to move a ball into seven different targets before the timer runs out.

Other activities ask students to fit six blocks in a box so that they fit perfectly and the lid can be closed — an activity that isn't as easy as it may sound. And try to figure out this one: Place 15 sticks on a given pattern, then remove six sticks, leaving 10.

In the meantime, here's a riddle from the exhibit that will keep you puzzled at home:

A farmer must take a fox, a chicken, and a bag of corn across the river. His boat is small, so he can only take one thing at a time.

But, if the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.

If the chicken and the corn are left together, the chicken will eat the corn.

How can the farmer get the fox, the chicken and the corn to the other side of the river in his little boat?

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For readers who are stumped, here are three hints followed by the puzzle solution.

HINTS:

The farmer can also carry something back

It will take seven trips

Something besides the farmer will cross the river more than once.

PUZZLE SOLUTION:

Trip 1 (across): Farmer and chicken

Trip 2 (back): Farmer

Trip 3 (across): Farmer and grain

Trip 4 (back): Farmer and chicken

Trip 5 (across): Farmer and Fox

Trip 6 (back): Farmer

Trip 7 (across): Farmer and chicken

Thank you to Megan S. Steele, director of marketing and public relations at the Virginia Air and Space Center, for providing the puzzle and its answer.

Want to go?

What: Mindbender Mansion, a traveling exhibit that focuses on riddles and puzzles